22 Direct From The New Yorker Reader Services 7ò hear personalized information about quality products and services offered in the pages of The Neu' Yorker, call: 1 · 800 · 2 till e y SHOES FROM ITALY O.ì\ I b" \V 0047 ({j 30037 TH E Asp ENS SNOWMA . BUTTERMILK A PEN MOUNTAIN ({j 30061 ({) Cri 11UlfJ fbr dú/i:trm 30071 t I I Call (BOO) 2317341 (outside Kentucky) t ri, . .\ (606) 268 2006 (from Kentucky) 'I ({j Free shlppmg anywhere m USA. . , Visa. MasterCard Amencan Express '# Absolute sansfactlOn (ata\09ue. or your money back. 01\ teO.u The J Petennan Company 2444 Palumbo Dnve Lexington Kentucky 40509 1990 J Pe1el111dl1 Company 30057 ADVERTISEMENT MUSIC M ICHAEL TIPPETT is one of the least classifiable figures in twentieth-century music. He was a late starter and is proving a very late finisher: born in 1905, he did not begin producing consequential works until around his thirtieth year, but he has kept on producing them into his mid-eighties. It is hard to think of another composer in any era who has brought out a full-length opera at age eighty-four, as Tippett did last year in Houston. (Verdi was a mere eighty when he presented "Falstaff.") He was an early exponent of the eclectic intermingling of American vernacular and European art-music traditions He has been preoccupied with paci- fism and socialism and with the Jungian idea of the need for the psyche to confront and know its "shadow" element. Sometimes his wor ks come across as a ppallingly am- ateurish pastiche and sometimes they go right to the heart of the matter. Styles, movements, and trends have swirled around him without nudging him a pprecia bly from his personal course. All these strains are identifiable in his first big public success, the orato- rio "A Child of Our Time." It was composed shortly after the outbreak of the Second W or ld War and first performed in 1944. The text, Tippett's own, treats (in allusive generality and specific reference) Herschel Grynsban, the Jewish teen- ager who killed a German diplomat in Paris in 1938 and provided the Nazis with a propaganda pretext for the most intense persecutions they had undertaken up to that pOInt. The work is accepted as a landmark in Britain, but it is not often done here; the New York Choral Society will per- form it under John Daly Goodwin on February 1 at Carnegie Hall, with Lucy Shelton among the soloists. (The box-office number for the Metropolitan Opera House is 362-6000; for Alice Tully Hall 362-1911; for Avery Fisher Hall 874- 2424; for Carnegie Hall 247-7800; for the Juilliard Theatre, 155 W. 65th St., 874-7515; for Merkin Concert Hall, 129 W. 67th St., 362-8719; and for the 92nd Street Y, Lex- ington Ave. at 92nd St., 415-5440 Other box-office numbers are included in the list- ings. ) OPERA METROPOLITAN OPERA-LA TRAVIATA, with Marilyn Mims, Alfredo Kraus, Paolo Coni, and James Courtney; conducted by Michelangelo Veltri. (J an. 29; Feb. 2, when Karen Huffstadt will sing the role of Violetta; and Feb. 7, with Edita Gruberova, all at 8.) . . . LA GIOCONDA. with Ghena Dimitrova, Stefania Toczyska, Bruno Beccaria, and Alain Fondary; N ello Santi. (Jan. 30 at 8 and Feb. 3 at 1:30.) . . . così FAN TUTTE, with Marilyn Mims, Tatiana Troyanos, Hei-Kyung Hong, Jerr) Hadley, and Thomas Hampson; Richard Woitach (Jan 31 at 8.) . . . With Carol Vaness, Diane Kesling, Hei-Kyung Hong, Jerry Hadley, and Thomas Hampson; Richard Woitach. (Feb. 3 at 8.) . . . FAUST. a new production, with Carol Vaness, Neil Shicoff, Brian Schexnayder, and James Morris; Charles Dutoit (Feb. 1 at 7 and Feb. 6 at 8.) . . . IL TROVATORE, with Susan Dunn, Dolora Zajick, Ermanno Mauro, and Lajos Miller; Rico Saccani. (Feb 5 at 8.) CENTER FOR CONTE PORARY OPERA-Presenting "Dream Play," a new opera by Timothy Sullivan. (Marymount Manhattan Theatre, 221 E. 71st St. Feb. 6 at 8. For information about tickets, call 279-4200 ) ORCHESTRAS AND CHORUSES NEW YORK PHILHAR ONIC-At Avery Fisher Hall, Erich Leinsdorf conducting Jan. 30 at 7:30: Works by Liszt, Stravinsky, Poulenc, and Offenbach. .. (jJ Feb. 1-2 at 8 and Feb 6 at 7:30: Works by Strauss-Couperin, Haydn, and Mozart. With Philip Myers, horn. WARSAW PHILHAR ONlc-Kazimierz Kord con- ducting works by Szymanowski, Beethoven, and Shostakovich. With Zoltan Kocsis, piano. (Carnegie Hall Feb. 2 at 8 ) NEW YORK CHA BER SY PHONY- Jaime Laredo conducting an all-Vivaldi program. With Syoko Aki and Mr Laredo, violin; André Emelianoff, cello; Judith Mendenhall and Claudia Walker, flute; Randall Ellis and Mark Hill, oboe; and David Singer and Laura Flax, clarinet. (92nd Street Y. Feb. 3 at 8.) NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE ORCHESTRA OF CANADA- Gabriel Chmura conducting a program that will include the New Y or k première of Michael Colgrass's "The Schubert Birds." (Carnegie Hall. Feb. 4 at 3.) CHA BER ORCHESTRA OF CANNEs-Philippe Ben- der conducting. With Ransom Wilson, flute. (Metropolitan Museum, Fifth Ave. at 83rd St. 570-3949. Feb 5 at 8.) ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE'S- John Eliot Gardiner conducting works by Stravinsky, Ibert, Percy Grainger, and Bartók. With Elizabeth Mann, flute (Carnegie Hall. Feb. 6 at 8.) NEW YORK CHORAL SOCIETy-John Daly Goodwin conducting Michael Tippett's ('A Child of Our Time." With Lucy Shelton, soprano, and Rebecca Russell, mezzo-soprano. (Carnegie Hall. Feb. 1 at 8.) RECIT ALS "WORLD OF ARNOLD SCHOENBERG"- The last five concerts by the J uilliard School of a six-eve- ning festival devoted to music by the com- poser, by those who influenced him, and by those he influenced. (Jan. 29-Feb 1 at the J uilliard Theatre; Feb. 2 at Alice Tully Hall. Evenings at 8. For tickets, which are free, call 874-7515.) DOWNTOWN CHA BER PLAYERS-Mimi Stern-Wolfe conducting and playing the piano in a pro- gram of works by Erwin Schulhoff and Kurt Weill. (Merkin Concert Hall. Jan. 31 at 8.) TOKYO STRING QUARTET-In an all-Beethoven pro- gram. (Metropolitan Museum, Fifth Ave. at 83 rd S t. 5 70-3949. J an. 3 1 at 8 ) BRE NER QUARTET-In a program of baroque chamber music. (Miller Theatre, Columbia University, Broadway at 116th St. 854-7799 Feb. 1 at 8.) ANGELA CHENG-Piano. (92nd Street Y. Feb. 1 at 8.) NEw YORK PHILO USlcA-Playing chamber music by Poulenc, Villa-Lob os, and Brahms. (Merkin Concert Hall Feb. 1 at 8.) CLASSICAL QUARTET-In an all-Haydn program. With guest artists Christopher Krueger, flute, and Steven Lubin, fortepiano (St. Mi- chael's Church, Amsterdam Ave. at 99th St. Feb. 2 at 8 Tickets at the door on the night of the concert) FINE ARTS QUARTET-With David Shifrin, clari- net. (Weill Recital Hall, at Carnegie Hall. Feb. 2 at 8.) HAR ONIE ENSE BLE-Steven Richman con- ducting With Ralph Votapek, piano, and James Kreger, cello. (Florence Gould Hall, French Institute-Alliance Française, 55 E. 59th St. 355-6160. Feb 2 at 8.) PHILIP GLASS ENSE BLE-Performing ('Music in 12 Parts." The .work, which is four hours long, will be presented with two short inter- missions and an hour-long dinner break (Av- ery Fisher Hall Feb. 3 at 6.) ASPEN WIND QUINTET-Playing, among other compositions, premières of works by George Tsontakis and Frank Zappa. (92nd Street Y Feb. 4 at 3.) ENSE BLE FOR EARLY Music-Presenting a staged production of ('Daniel and the Lions," based on a twelfth-century cathedral play. (Clois- ters, Fort Tryon Park 923-3700. Feb. 4 at 1:30 and 3:30.) LUCINE A ARA-Soprano. (Broadway Presbyte- rian Church, Broadway at 114th St Feb. 4 at 3. Tickets at the door on the afternoon of the concert) SI Yo MusIc SOCIETy-Playing chamber music by Willem De Fesch, Franz Danzl, and Brahms. (Pace Downtown Theatre, Spruce St between Nassau and Gold Sts. 488-1715. Feb. 4 at 3.) CHA BER MusIc SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER- Playing works by Albinoni, Purcell, Mozart, and others. With guest artists Carmit Zori, violin; Judith Pearce, flute; Peggy Pearson and Stephen Taylor, oboe; and Robert Wo-